Cute, playful and often spellbinding The Girl With the Iron Claws is the debut production from The Wrong Crowd. For their first step into a world of theatrical adventures together, the show is impressive, very. It has its flaws of course – no first production should be without flaws – but this fairytale is a delight to watch. The most clearly thought out, well constructed and designed piece of work I’ve seen at this year’s Fringe so far.
The form is a simple coming-of-age narrative first heard by playwright and director Hannah Mulder in a yurt on Dartmoor in midwinter, so the exceedingly well-crafted programme informs us. The magical and eerie music by Isobel Waller-Bridge, playing as we wait for the performance to begin is evocative of the atmosphere that must have been conjured at this original reading of the tale. It conveys a mood of suspenseful calm and latent adventure that all fairytales hold within them, and on the whole this sense of adventure is wonderfully captured by the company.
The scene is set by our narrator, the famed maker of the eponymous iron claws. Made – he says – to help a young girl escape to freedom. So the narrative cogs are set into action and the tale of a young princess who likes wandering in the woods and one day falls in love with a bear king leaps into action. Except it doesn’t so much leap as take its time to really get into gear, and this is the one major criticism I have of the show.
Fairytales are always particularly hard to do, being the definition of ‘all been done before’, and at times I felt as if this production struggled in finding its voice through which to narrate the story. The visual language was exceedingly strong, and at times this outdid the strength of the words. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the production needs more confidence in the language it is using – a confidence this company certainly should have. The show did build up, but I wanted the punch it had in the middle from the start.
There are some great characters, and the actors jump into the roles with vigour. Laura Cairns’ multi-role playing of Troll Queen, Sister, Crone and Blacksmith’s Wife is brilliant. The control she maintained whilst playing two sisters at the same time – one a puppet – shows that this company is exceedingly skilled. The puppets themselves are wonderfully designed by Rachael Canning, ranging from giant troll and bear to adorable puppet children.
The Girl With the Iron Claws is a fairytale for adults and children alike that really captures the true mood of the genre. A grotesque, playful and mischievous adventure through the world of fairytale.
